Nature and Nurture - [Risa, Sunrises]

[allmhadadh]

It wasn't particularly pleasant to spend your first moments of the morning worshipping a toilet.

It was even less pleasant when you knew that you wouldn't even be able to stomach a proper cup of coffee, and still had to go to work.

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[amplenacelles]

Risa was a beautiful planet and the ground had a kind of pull to it that artificial modulators could never quite grasp, but Scotty still felt like he was on the ship. That mild sensation of falling, of prolonged instability, followed him even as he left the transporter site and started down the boardwalk. Ship's time had marked it somewhere in the Delta, the ground on this coast was in the very young hours of the morning. Mist still clung to the tropical waters and the humidity was heavy and warm in the new light-it was a strange combination of heat and cool and Scotty shuddered just the once as he was walking.

The last time he'd been up this early, he'd been ordered to commence revelry at the Academy.

The PADD on his hip trilled and he glanced at the small, graphic map it displayed. As it indicated the east, he returned it to its place and the glass went clear again. The walk was a long one and gave him plenty of time to reconsider his hard thought course of action. Fortunately, Scotty did no such thing-he allowed himself to be distracted by the colorful buildings, the occasional jogger, and the Tellerite couple arguing in one of the many hotel rooms above the principle boulevard. He forgot what this city was called and didn't particularly care to ruminate on it.

When he came to the docks, he passed the salty looking natives as they opened the bait and rental shops by the pier. Another minute or so of walking put him past the closed dockhand shop. The sun was completely above the water and the light turned from light pink to clear yellow as he started meandering through the rows of boats. It was a right pleasant place, all sailing and good temperatures, and it put an unconscious smile on his face.

After a few more minutes, he came upon a set of fishermen discussing the fees of the lad cleaning up their 142ll hoverdrive. Scotty listened to their conversation and sat himself down at the far end of the dock, facing the rising sun. It was bright and warm on his face as he waited.

[allmhadadh]

Doing the sort of illegal work bit was decent, if not a bit tougher today than it had been yesterday; he figured to work a morning shift, then go sleep off whatever he had caught. In the meantime, though, the recreational fishermen were probably some of the most amenable, if not rushed, customers he'd had so far.

Luckily for him, no one had taken exception to him yet. Word was going to spread there was a good, very cheap mechanic on the docks, and then he'd be run off (or offered an under-the-table job, his preferred route), but for now he was in the clear.

He finished the quick job on the hoverdrive. Not as much fun as a hydrogen motor; not even close, really. He still had a surprising amount of affection for internal combustion; might have had something to do with the little thrill of controlled explosions. It definitely had to do with the sound.

"Anythin' else I c'n do fer ye, sir?" he asked the 'captain' of the boat, once it was fired up and the red light on the instrument panel was now showing green, putting on his best business face.

"No, good stuff man." The fisherman flashed a grin, handing over the ten credits -- very cheap labor -- then jumped in his boat with his buddy.

Scott threw off the bowline for them, pocketing the chips and packing the tools up again. He rather hoped the sun would heat things up enough that he'd quit shivering intermittently, but it was taking its good sweet time coming up. Regardless, even under a cloud like this, he felt... more stable. Less scared.

That didn't stop him from eyeing the only newly familiar figure sitting down on the way aways. He froze for a moment, then deliberately closed the toolkit and stood again.

Well, he was the one who opened the door. And the man was a good man. So, with a breath to steady himself, he headed down there a little tentatively, stopping about ten feet back. "Mornin', sir."

[amplenacelles]

"I dunnae ken why ye' keep callin' me tha'," Scotty said before he'd really thought it over. The other options were no less disturbing, really. Scotty didn't look up at the lad, just sat and watched the distant swell of the alien waters--the tides pulled them in a fashion he'd never seen, but it wasn't particularly odd.

"Risa's a nice place," Scotty announced conversationally. "Solid." He wasn't sure why he felt the need to add it, but he had. Idly, he turned in place and looked up at the kid--he looked like hell and Scotty's eyebrows went up just slightly. He didn't say anything about it.

[allmhadadh]

He was a bit taken aback by the first part, and opened his mouth to reply before Scotty there went and added the other part. And at that, he put a half-laugh of a breath through his nose, an immediately recognizable sound of air alone.

"Sir? I... suppose because it's polite." Honestly, he was a bit bemused at the notion he'd go calling this older man anything else. Then he looked up, not quite into the sun, eyes narrowed against the light. "I dinna think I've ever been in tropics like this before now. Bit warm fer my tastes, but nae bad. The water's nice."

[amplenacelles]

Scotty shot the lad a skeptical, if not mildly amused look--his best impersonation of Commander Spock, in fact--but couldn't manage to hold it. The lad looked up and Scotty regarded him for a few more seconds before turning back to the water.

"Aye," Scotty agreed genially, "It looks sterling from here."

Scotty took in a deep breath and closed his eyes as the warm breeze blew by. For the first time since he'd decided on leaving the ship, he was considering just up and leaving the lad. The weight in his stomach returned and his deep breath came out as a sigh.

"Seems a bit ropey, this," Scotty commented, his voice generally free from inflection, almost as if he were commenting to himself--ironic, that.

[allmhadadh]

"Ropey." Needless to say, he found this other Scotty's slang to be almost like a language all its own. He didn't use much himself, and the color of it amused him, even in those times when nothing else did. "If ye'll go 'head an' define that fer me, I might be able t' agree or disagree."

He sure wasn't bad at reading people. Hell, half the reason he tended to like being alone is because he didn't like what he saw in others. So, the latter comment was almost teasing; very cautious teasing, but teasing regardless.

[amplenacelles]

Scotty laughed dryly and shook his head, it wasn't the first time he'd been asked to rephrase something but it was the first time he'd been asked in a Scottish accent. He rolled his shoulders, and was silent for several seconds before glancing back at the lad.

"Ye got anythin' ta swing when tha' Zevian's at dock decide they've had enough a' ya?" Scotty jerked his head in the direction of the western shore, but didn't bother looking back at the shops--he couldn't have seen then through the boats, anyhow.

[allmhadadh]

"Nae yet." He finally sat down, about three feet away, giving the other him some personal space but not so much they'd have to raise their voices when the next crowd of boaters came out to take to sea. "I figure somethin'll come by."

[amplenacelles]

"Aye," Scotty nodded--he had no doubt the lad would.

Scotty sat there for several seconds, waffling over just how much to share with the lad. The breeze picked up again and he enjoyed the relative ease with which they seemed to be coexisting. Rest, in his experience, was always a temporary state. Never permanent, never lingering.

If the force that set things in motion was, inevitably, going to be him, he might as well stop wasting time. He was a sentimental bloke, and he sighed as he shoved it aside.

"Did ya' ever study Translight Dimensional Mechanics?"

[allmhadadh]

"Nae, I havena." He smiled a little, looking off himself. "I was slated fer Command School. Accepted, e'en, so I suppose I must've impressed th' boards. But all I had, really, were a couple semesters at th' University o' Aberdeen, some engineerin' courses in Basic an' lots o' readin' on my own."

[amplenacelles]

"Command school?" Scotty stopped and actually glanced over at the lad. There was a difference here, an important one, and Scotty couldn't seem to wrap his mind around the implications of it. His brain caught up to him, cutting through his curiosity, and he blinked a couple of times before laughing.

"Aye, then," Scotty said, his laugh and voice rapidly bleeding off his amusement. "It doesnae really matter, I suppose."

With a shrug, Scotty pulled the PADD off his hip and called up a complex series of equations. Wordlessly, he turned the PADD around and set it in the space between them. Scotty leaned forward, toward the water, and propped his elbows on his knees.

[allmhadadh]

"Aye... was th' only way Mum would stop..." He paused for a moment, then shook it off. It didn't matter. It really didn't matter here. He wondered briefly at the sensation of actually saying anything about it, and chalked it up to the fact he was under the weather and talking to someone in a universe where he didn't even technically exist.

But he glanced over at the PADD, then picked it up, studying it thoughtfully.

[amplenacelles]

“Tha' is the series of calculations needed to complete a transportation of living molecular data from a transmitter traveling at a velocity greater than the speed of light,” Scotty explained almost wearily. “It's tha' magnum opus of Montgomery Scott.”

Had he been talking to anyone else, he would have expected an odd look and probably a question concerning the third person there.

“Tha' got handed off tae me, fee free,” Scotty leaned and motioned with his hand-an inconsequential move to dismiss some distant action. “By a Vulcan from a' hundred owt two years in tha' future.” Scotty glanced at the other Scott and shot him a weak smile.

“Yer' holdin' tha' greatest life achievement a' our life,” Scott announced and looked away. “Took me a long while ta' stop feelin' redundant-an' I did, after a tick.” He smiled toward the water. “Didnae even take tha' piss outta' tha' admirals tha' gave me tha' award.”

Scotty looked up, idly, “Even got it, packed up an' sittin in a closet somewhere, tickety-boo. But t's nae mine.”

[allmhadadh]

He didn't look up from the PADD -- Lord, and Perera's math had seemed complex to him at first; it had nothing on this -- but he stopped processing the math and his gaze focused past it, past the water, into something unknown as he listened.

He didn't quite get what he was being told, though, except that this Scotty got a Hell of a blow due to some sort of permanent, looping paradox. Like being cheated out of the hard work of a prize.

"It woulda been, aye?" he asked, not looking over. "If he brought it back to ye, from yerself." A little scoff. "Small comfort."

[amplenacelles]

"Nae, lad," Scotty said with a shake of his head. “It wouldnae'.”

Idly, he shifted back and braced himself on his arms. The sun was beginning to feel overwarm, but it was still well within his tolerance.

“I dunnae know if tha' Scott is me,” Scotty continued, “He couldae' been you, or tha' other, or any number a' different variations.” Scotty looked at the lad to his side. “Or it could be it was swizz, nothin' but a lie tae git me ta lend a hand.”

Scotty shrugged again. “Either way, I dunnae want it. Why would a bloke want his greatest achievement handed right off, given over straight away?”

[allmhadadh]

"Other? Jesus, we're worse'n rabbits."

It was a very out of the blue comment, but he couldn't help it. How he felt right now, there was just no resisting the urge to take a potshot back at the universe(s?) that had decided to play this kind of cosmic joke. Even a weak verbal one in light of literal, physical helplessness to do anything about it.

He took a breath and sighed, putting his shoulder to the dockpost he was next to, setting the PADD aside. "I dinna ken. Figure out a rhetorical answer, t' yer rhetorical question?" It wasn't snarky, not really. More... weary, a bit.